How do I avoid wire fraud at a closing?

The pattern is consistent. Someone reads the email traffic on a pending closing, learns the closing date and the amount, then sends a message that looks like it came from the attorney, the settlement agent or the broker, announcing new wire instructions. The account belongs to the fraudster and the money moves within minutes.

The defenses are procedural rather than technical. Verify instructions by voice at a number you obtained independently, before the first wire and again if anything changes. Read the account and routing numbers back digit by digit. Treat urgency, a new bank, or a request to keep the change quiet as warning signs.

Look at the sender address character by character rather than at the display name. Fraudsters register domains that differ by one letter or a swapped pair, and mail clients show only the friendly name. A reply typed fresh to a known address is safer than hitting reply on a suspect message.

Ask your bank about a small test wire and about callback verification on the account. Many institutions will confirm the beneficiary name against the account, and a mismatch on a fifty dollar test costs nothing compared with a full down payment sent to the wrong place.

If a wire has already gone out, speed decides the outcome. Call your bank immediately and ask for a recall under the fraud procedure, notify the receiving bank, file with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, and report to local law enforcement. Funds are sometimes frozen when the report happens within hours.